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Author Topic: How to make an ebook to share with peers.  (Read 1024 times)

RMW

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How to make an ebook to share with peers.
« on: December 30, 2020, 11:45:18 am »

Hello All.

I'm working towards a book about an island and its people in the marshes of Louisiana, Isle de Jean Charles. It'll have a 6,000 word essay and app. 50 fotos. Hopefully a publisher here in the South will pick it up.

But before I submit to a press I'd like to make an e-version of it, just a basic one, to send to some peers for their review. I guess in the old days that would've been called a mockup.

I did make a version using the Book Module in LR, but I was unable to place it in my Google Drive account for others to see.

Does anyone have a suggestion for what program I might use? ( I have to confess I'm no digital savant.)

Thanks very much for any help.

Richard

richardwallerphotos.com
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David Eckels

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Re: How to make an ebook to share with peers.
« Reply #1 on: December 30, 2020, 02:09:18 pm »

Save as PDF in LR Book module under the Book Settings menu (very top of stack). Formatting options will open when you select PDF.

langier

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Re: How to make an ebook to share with peers.
« Reply #2 on: December 30, 2020, 05:04:05 pm »

I've done this many times... However, I'm also a graphic designer by trade since the end of hot metal... I use InDesign for much of my layout though I once was a QuarkXpress person in an earlier life... I further refine my files in Acrobat to shrink them down for sending via the web.

However, with the right settings just posted using Lightroom, you should be able to create a PDF file that can be shrunk enough to make it easy to upload to your Google Drive and more importantly, make it an easily (small enough) download for most people.

If you are proficient in Photoshop, It's a pretty good way to create a page or two for print for your essay, but it's not the best way to handle your essay. If you have a Mac, you have Apple's Pages you can use for your layout. It's not sophisticated but adequate and I think a little easier to wrangle for illustrated books than Word which also can be used. Both can export PDF files that you can later distill down to a smaller file suitable for viewing on a hand-held device or a computer.

My preference is to prepare my images in the program of your choice, LR, PS, or pick one of the up-and-coming programs, generate your tiff/jpeg files for layout large enough to make your print provider happy, usually 300-350 dpi at the final size, then with all the files created, flattened and gathered, layout your book in InDesign, QuarkXpress, Affinity Design or Pages/Word and then output your PDF file.

Another way is to use your output module from LR to create your PDF sequence, then marry that document with your essay PDF from your Pages/Word files. This way is a little more complex but for an on-line book may be the fastest/easiest for you unless you want to make the jump to a new can of worms with InDesign, etc.

Typically, a Print-quality PDF is way too large to want to send to friends and others via the web, but can be reduced in size to work well as an ebook PDF file that should work with everyone's phones/pads/computers. By using Acrobat to do the work, you can also pass-word protect the file and limit or prohibit printing of the file by most end users. I manage one website where I secure the files to limit printing to low-res and lock the file enough to keep people from copying text and swiping photos. The files look great on a computer, pad and on a low-end inkjet are just fine.

It's always a matter of figuring out the right settings to create the right balance on your ebooks to look nice but not so nice someone can "repurpose" your work as their own.

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Larry Angier
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RMW

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Re: How to make an ebook to share with peers.
« Reply #3 on: January 02, 2021, 06:37:09 pm »

Thank you David and Larry.
I found your suggestions very helpful and instructive. Now I know I'm best off finding someone to do this for me and use my time to improve my foto work.
As someone might have said, 'to your own weaknesses be respectful'.
Richard
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